Tripolimaria. How Russia and Turkey sympathize over Libya and why Erdogan may be more successful than Putin

In Libya, a new conflict is flaring up: Companions of the head of the Libyan National Army (LNA) Khalifa Haftar, who recently met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, tried on May 28 to take control of oil production. This internal conflict entails a clash of interests of larger players. After the fall of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad, Libya becomes a key country for the Kremlin in the struggle for the preservation of a military presence in the Mediterranean and Africa, but Turkey was on the way to Russia. During the first years of the civil war, the Turkish authorities supported the “pro-Western” Government of National Accord in Tripoli, while the Haftar, which took the east of the country relied more on the help of Egypt, the UAE and Russia. However, in the spring of 2025, there was an unexpected разворотturn: Turkey began to actively establish direct contacts with the LNA, the traditional ally of the Kremlin. Now Russia, having connected Belarus, is trying to counteract this. Putin personally receives Haftar in Moscow, because now Libya has become a key point for Russian projects in the Sahel belt in Africa. But Turkish arguments in the form of investments and weapons may be much more profitable for Haftar than ephemeral advantages from cooperation with Russia.